Operation Achieve Anything: Day Two-Hundred-Seventeen, Dateline 8-5-2018
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“The great man is he who does not lose his child’s-heart.”
Good morning crickets. Welcome to day number two-hundred-seventeen of Operation Achieve Anything. It's Sunday so that means I'm now nursing a hangover after another Saturday of hanging out with a box of wine. My original plan for the day was to get liquored up while also getting caught up on the second season of GLOW and Stranger Things. Unfortunately, I miss gauged just how much TV viewing that would be and only managed to get through all the episodes of the show about the Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling.
Though I could continue on with my goal and devote today to Stranger Things, I feel more inclined to just lay around, moaning and groaning as I process the remaining alcohol that steaming through my blood and making me feel run down. I don't know why I continue to do this to myself because even at the peak of my drunkenness, it's gotten to the point where my former favorite feeling is only a little fun.
That said, I still like to drink from time to time because it does create a bit of a vacation mentality within me to where, when drunk, I allow myself to take a legitimate break. It's kind of weird how my outlook has evolved from seeing booze as a writing tool, to where I now prefer to write while I'm completely sober. That said, I still enjoy putting myself into altered states of mind to explore my ideas from different angles.
I often find that when I'm sedated, it allows me to wander deeper into a world of wonder as if it heightens my sense of feeling like an alien in this strange world. I'm more inclined to sit through crazy documentaries when I'm all hopped up on wine. This sort of transitions into yesterday's assignment where I was supposed to explore my history of wonder going back to my youth before I was a drunk.
As I often point out, I was raised with very little guidance, so I often relied on my own wonders as my inspiration to learn. I think this is why I was always obsessed with the mysteries of life rather than purely focusing on the mundane details being taught in school. I know for a fact that this is why I became a fan of documentaries at such a young age, especially those that focused on the paranormal and the occult.
One of the earliest docs of this genre that really tapped into my wonder was the Orson Welles documentary about Nostradamus call The Man Who Saw Tomorrow. Not only was this my introduction to fear porn with its focus on the end of the world, it got me to think about the way we look at time. Whether or not I truly believed that Nostradamus could see the future, this documentary got me thinking that if his brand of prophecy was even potentially real that would mean that the past, the present, and the future would have to coexist together, which became a common thing that I continually try to tackle in my fictional tales.
In fact, I think this sense of wonder that was created while I was so young is the whole reason that I am so obsessed with exploring even the craziest of ideas when I write. Speaking of youth, for today's assignment, I'm supposed to explore the quote of the day by sharing what I feel Mencius means by child's-heart and why it's important to hold on to some of the youthful ways of interpreting the world around us.
Of course, you'll have to wait for tomorrow's update to see what I have to say about the subject, as usual. Until then, it's time for me to wrap this thing us with my standard sign off and say, good day and good luck to you and all of your projects.
Talk to you soon.
Sincerely,
The Wicker Breaker
P.S. Below are links to my novel, which I plan to promote as part of Operation Achieve Anything, as well as a link to where you can buy the book that is providing the structure to this project in case you would like to purchase it in order to play along.
